CHAPTER- VI
IN FRONTIER GANDHI'S VILLAGE HOME
Thanks to the hospitable care of Badshah Khan and
his brother Dr. Khan Saheb, contrary to all forebodings
Gandhiji flourished in the bracing climate of the North-
West Frontier Province. The cold was not yet too in-
tense and there was an agreeable nip in the air. Badshah
Khan, the fakir, gave him all the rest that one could
wish for. A kinder or a more considerate ' jailor ' Gandhiji
never had. He left Gandhiji free to follow his regime of
almost unbroken silence and to order his time just as he
liked. There were no public functions, no interviews,
practically no conversations even by written slips of paper.
It is related about Emerson that when he paid his historic
visit to the Sage of Chelsea, neither of them spoke a word.
At the end of his " wordless interview " the Poet of Con-
cord rose with the parting remark, " Sir, we had a good
talk," to which Carlyle, who believed in the virtue of
silence, repMed, " Yes, sir, and a most eloquent one." I am
perfectly sure that if Gandhiji had only wished it, Badshah
Khan, on his part, would have been satisfied to give him
a " tour" without any touring and a " programme"
without any engagements, and at the end of it allowed
him to say Emersonwise, " Sir, we had an exciting tour
programme! "
Badshah Khan never feels completely happy, unless
he can breathe the fresh, free air of the countryside in the
midst of his native surroundings. No Pathan evei does.
And Badshalf Khan has a particular horror of big cities
with their seething population, self-seeking and chicanery.
In order, therefore, to give to Gandhiji complete physical
and mental rest, he brought him away from Peshawar on
the 9th of October, 1938, after a four days' stay, to his
country residence at Utmanzai.
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